Expand Your Thinking

Continuing with looking at some basic cognitive biases. A couple well known cognitive biases and how they are the basis at times of forming in-groups and out-groups (us and them thinking).

This video is something everyone should see. It is a very good first introduction to the Fundamental Attribution Error and related cognitive biases. He gives a good personal story at the end illustrating how this works (labeling people) and the implications (self-fulfilling prophecy, confirmation bias, and people suffering because of it). By a professor at East Tennessee State U (Dr. Dula) but is not technical or too intellectual (as much as I like that sort of thing) but is down-to-earth and something everyone can understand. Very well done. A good article on this: The Fundamental Attribution Error: When People Underestimate…

Below is a short, incomplete list of common cognitive biases, faulty thinking, etc. everyone suffers from at times. This causes numerous problems for ourselves and others we interact with. They can impede our ability to understand others and their arguments fairly. They keep us at times from admitting our mistakes and false beliefs, or even recognizing them, thus keeping us from learning from our mistakes and improving. They can cause us to misunderstand and to even hate others as a result. This is not good or a pretty sight. (See Scott Alexander’s long essay, “I Can Tolerate Anything Except The…

My biggest pet peeve the past few years has been the prevalence of cognitive biases and the general lack of critical thinking skills in most (myself included). [1] This is one reason for the creation of this blog. Yes, I’m an autistic nerd, but hear me out. Cognitive Biases and Critical Thinking In the past few years I have been studying several serious or intellectual subjects and disciplines (Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Religion, Aristotelean/Scholastic metaphysics, etc.) and I have found that critical thinking skills are essential in understanding and assessing information objectively and without bias, at least, as much as…